Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father!

Overview

Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father! (or Papakiki as I will be referring to it from here on out) is supposedly a romance, comedy, slice of life anime. I say supposedly because the only one of those categories I think it fully fits into is slice of life. While there are hints of romance and some comedic parts, it didn’t feel like a romantic comedy.

As for the plot, one day Yuuta is asked to babysit his three nieces by his sister and her husband so they can go out. This all goes sort of fine, so they ask him to babysit again while they go on a trip abroad. Unfortunately their plane crashes and they are both presumed dead (doesn’t sound very rom-com-y to me).

After the deaths of their parents, the three girls were going to be split up to be taken care of by various family members. Yuuta, however, thinks the girls should be raised together rather than be split up and so he decides to raise them himself in his one room apartment.

Characters

Yuuta is the protagonist. He’s a college student who was raised by his sister after the deaths of their own parents which is why he feels this is the right thing to do for his nieces. Along with his college courses, he also works to pay the rent for his apartment and provide for his nieces.

Sora, 14, is the eldest of the girls and has had a crush on Yuuta since she was a little kid (I think this is why it’s considered a romantic comedy). Like the other two girls, she struggles to cope with the deaths of her parents, but as the eldest sister she tries to hold herself together and be a role model.

Miu, 10, is kind of like Sora’s wing-woman. She knows how Sora feels about Yuuta and purposefully says or does things to make them interact with each other. Other than that she’s almost a forgotten character as she’s the middle sibling.

Hina, 3, is the youngest sister. She’s generally happy, but doesn’t understand why she and her sisters are living with Yuuta or why her parents aren’t coming back. Throughout the anime, the struggle to explain to Hina what happened to her parents is something all the other characters have to deal with, especially Sora.

Hina (left) and Yuuta (right)

Conclusion

If you watch the OP linked below you may see why this anime is considered a romantic comedy, but like I mentioned before, I don’t think it really fit into that genre. While there is some romance and some comedy, the main theme of the show appears to be how kids of various ages cope with the loss of their parents, which isn’t a very romantic or comedic theme.

I do think that the slice of life genre fits, however, because it does a pretty good job of showing the kinds of everyday struggles these characters have to go through. From coping with loss, to struggling with managing school and multiple jobs, there are plenty of themes in this anime which many people are probably familiar with in their own lives.

In the end, I gave Papakiki a 7/10 because I thought it did a good job of expressing some of these more realistic, and heavy themes in a way that was still entertaining to watch.